Malaysia to woo more Arab tourists

A Malaysian official delegation will tour Arab Gulf states in a bid to woo Arab tourists, the Malaysian news agency, BERNAMA, reported.

The delegation will be led by Malaysian Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.

The working visit, from April 5 to 19, also aims to get to know more of the tourism market in the region as well as to follow-up the progress of Abdul Kadir's visit last year to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to promote the country.

This time, apart from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, the delegation has included Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and Qatar.

The trip would be filled up with meetings and discussions with the Malaysian embassies in the countries concerned, dialogue sessions with chief executive officers of travel agencies and Malaysian multinational corporations.

Malaysia aims to attract 200,000 visitors from the Gulf countries by the end of this year from 23,000 visitors in 1998.

In order to achieve the target, Malaysia has decided to form a task force in Dubai in the UAE, Kuwait City in Kuwait, and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, to look after and coordinate any Malaysian tourism promotional activities.